Artist description "The cult doyenne of underground MOR" -LTM Records (UK)"A voice which is truly one of rock's most seductive deadly weapons" - Dave Thompson / Alternative Press (USA) "Carroll is the former leader of English indie darlings Miaow, a woman with such a gorgeously sleepy-seductive voice that wittier pundits than I have called her the Sade of the underground." - Jim DeRogatis (Chicago Sun-Times/USA). "The hard-core Sade has arrived" -Sam King Sounds (UK).

Music Style Guitar-spiked technopop

Musical Influences Buzzcocks to Brian Eno.

Similar Artists Brian Ferry goes Portishead.

Artist History English-born, Lilypad recording artist- Cath Carroll has lived in the United States since 1990 and, in March 2000 became an American citizen! In the early 1980's, in her hometown of Manchester, Cath and indie label mogul Liz Naylor ran a fanzine and formed the The Fall-inspired band, Gay Animals. Cath later moved to London in 1984. Here, she began a dual career of writing for Britain's New Musical Express and fronting the band, Miaow. The group's first self-released single brought them to the attention of Tony Wilson at Manchester's Factory Records (then home of New Order and Happy Mondays). The label released Miaow's next two singles, "When It All Comes Down" and "Break The Code". Miaow appeared on the NME's seminal C86 record, a compilation of so-called jangly pop bands, which also included Primal Scream and the Wedding Present. After Miaow parted company, Cath visited Chicago to record with indie demagogue, Steve Albini whom she worked with on "Train You're On" (EMM). They contributed a version of "King Creole" to the popular compilation album The Last Temptation of Elvis, released in 1990. Cath's status as an indie cult figure was affirmed by DC band Unrest's song "Cath Carroll" from their 1993 4AD album Perfect Teeth. The connection eventually lead to the two single releases on Teen Beat, 1994's "My Cold Heart" and 1995's "Bad Star". But it wasn't until 1995 that a full-length release appeared on an American label. This was True Crime Motel released by Mark Robinson's Washington D.C.-based label, TeenBeat, and manufactured and distributed by then Warner Bros. satellite, Matador Records. Cath's third full-length release of original music- Cath Carroll, (Lilypad/Heart & Soul HS77751-2) documents the 1995-2000 timeline and portrays "...a subversive, shadowy corner of the adult-pop universe" (Greg Kot/Chicago Tribune). Distributed in the US by Midwest Artist Distribution, the critically acclaimed self-titled release is also available on the internet from retailers such as Amazon.com, or direct from Lilypad Records at CathCarroll.com. Cath and producer/husband Kerry Kelekovich have finished working on "The Gondoliers Of Ghost Lake"- a thirteen song collection of new originals which will be released November, 2002 on LTM Records (UK) worldwide, who have also reissued CC's Factory debut, "England Made Me" (July'02) available in the US at darla.com and other fine retailers.

Group Members Cath Carroll Kerry Kelekovich Special Guests: Lare D'Amico, Dan Massey, Tom Dziallo, John Carpenter, Brian Dunn, Rich Carroll.

Instruments Cath Carroll-Vocals; keys. Kerry Kelekovich- Guitars; Basses; Keys & Percussion. Lare D'Amico- Percussion. Dan Massey- Drums. Rich Carroll- Bass. John Carpenter- Acoustic Guitar. Brian Dunn- Electric Guitar.

Albums England Made Me (Factory 1991); True Crime Motel (TeenBeat/Matador 1995); Cath Carroll (Lilypad/Heart & Soul 2000); The Gondoliers Of Ghost Lake (LTMCD2350/Nov 15,2002).

Press Reviews Chicago Sun-Times In 20 Words Or Less Cath Carroll | England Made Me (LTM) *** (out of four) Reviewed by Jim DeRogatis 9/13/02 "Reissue of the 1991 Factory debut by the laidback indie chanteuse. Gentle grooves and a voice to melt your heart." Glasgow Herald CATH CARROLL - England Made Me (LTM)*** Reviewed by Neil Cooper "She may have been written out of Mancs for the memories movie, '24 Hour Party People,' yet, having already been co-responsible for the best magazine ever with 'City Fun', the rad-fem confrontationalist cabaret of The Glass Animals and indie underachievers Miaow prior to this re- released 1991 solo debut, Cath Carroll was as Factory Records as they come. Yet, out of step with the post-baggy fallout, such a coolly sophisticated set of electro-bossa melancholy cool must've seemed like terminal hiding of lights beneath bushels. Either that, or else it was just too pretty and too clever for the likes of us, an eerily displaced, less eager to please kid sister to the sort of faraway dreamscapes Saint Etienne were then wafting off to, on 'Moves Like You' and 'Send Me Over,' especially. Elsewhere, Steve Albini's Latino grunge spoils the mood somewhat, but, with an extra quartet of remixes, this remains a squint into the middle distance best served chilled." Performing Songwriter December 2001 issue Cath Carroll Cath Carroll Produced by Kerry Kelekovich and Cath Carroll Indie rock fans know Cath Carroll's name mainly from a legendary single by danceable jangle-punkers Unrest, who sang her praises in one of their best, most breathless songs. The homage derived from Unrest frontman Mark Robinson's obsessive love for the distinctive British pop label Factory Records, which released Carroll's solo records, as well as a few 45s by her band Miaow. Never more than a cult figure in her Manchester home (where she also operated as a rock journalist), Carroll has continued to live and record (and publish criticism) in relative obscurity since moving to Chicago and marrying her collaborator, Kerry Kelekovich. Carroll's eponymous third solo album is her first in a half-decade, and it demonstrates a shift into fluid, guitar-spiked technopop, a la Portishead or Hooverphonic. Carroll's affectless alto weaves in and around Kelekovich's stinging guitar and the insistently bubbling electronic rhythms, creating a mood of pretty melancholy. The genuine longing in songs like "London, Queen Of My Heart" and "This Is How We Fall" comes with the mitigation of a jetsetter's sophistication. Like the best of her contemporaries in the faded UK post-punk scene, Carroll creates sad music for the comfortably well-to-do ... or those who like to fantasize that they are. reprinted here from http://www.performingsongwriter.com/frames/frameset.html Chicago Tribune CHICAGO'S BEST NEW RECORDED MUSIC Published on 09/01/2000 Cath Carroll, Cath Carroll (Lilypad): "... As a late-night companion, Cath Carroll is destined to make you laugh ruefully at the singer's brutal little asides - "this is my confession / the end of dinner parties" - while she leads you into a subversive, shadowy corner of the adult-pop universe occupied by Jobim, the pre-disco Everything But The Girl and Bryan Ferry's "The Bride Stipped Bare".Carroll, a native of England, sings with the detached cool of a bossa-nova vocalist, and her richly atmospheric songs - written in collaboration with multi-instrumentalist Kerry Kelekovich- are thick with ghosts, innuendo and a vague sense of dread." -Greg Kot Greg's Indie Top 10 2000 Chicago Sun-Times 10/2/2000 reprinted from Launch.com "Chicago homeboy Jim offers up more Windy City rock!" Okay, so I'm a Chicago homeboy. I don't think that's ever unduly influenced my selection of Reasons For Living (or Things That Suck). It's just that this city happens to have one of the most vibrant indie/ underground rock scenes in the U.S. of A. Doubt it? Read on. REASONS FOR LIVING Cath Carroll, Cath Carroll (Lilypad/ Heart & Soul) Deanna Varagona, Tangled Messages (Star Star Stereo) Here are two Chicago women who seek our attention with a whisper instead of a roar. Carroll is the former leader of English indie darlings Miaow, a woman with such a gorgeously sleepy-seductive voice that wittier pundits than I have called her the Sade of the underground. This is her first release since 1995's well-ignored True Crime Motel on Matador, and it's enchanting trip-hop makeout music--nothing that's gonna change your life or have you doing the happy dance between your stereo speakers, but just fine when you're in the right mood. (Add a good bottle of wine, a little hooch, and some candles in the bedroom, and you and a friend will be diggin' this disc plenty.) -Jim DeRogatis Chicago Reader Post No Bills Local Release Roundup November 24, 2000 "A gorgeous collection of smoky, very adult ballads written and performed by low-profile chanteuse Cath Carroll and her husband, Kerry Kelekovich (formerly of The Wildroots and Michael McDermott's band). Carroll remains best known in indie-rock circles as the object of a long-standing fixation of TeenBeat Records honcho Mark Robinson, who covered a tune by her old British band, Miaow, wrote a song about her, and even released her last album. But if you want to know why he's obsessed, check out this record: Carroll's voice is similar to, if huskier and less flexible than, Sally Timms's, but her songs, filled with couples in trouble and loners grappling with their solitude, are much darker and more reflective." -Peter Margasak OUT MAGAZINE November 2000 "A smoky-voiced siren who evokes comparisons to Astrud Gilberto and Sade, Manchester native Cath Carroll was one of the true cult figures of the American and British independent music scenes in the early '90s. (Her Factory Records debut, England Made Me, is a lost classic of dreamy bossa novas and brooding dance tunes.) On her third solo album Carroll, now a Chicago resident, cooly muses on the myths and mysteries of the American heartland: "I Remember the Sun" is a shimmering Western noir, while "You Know It1s You" reworks one of her early singles (19911s "Moves Like You") into a gritty porn-soundtrack outtake. Darkly intelligent and deliciously complex, Cath Carroll is testimony to one of indie rock's most intoxicating voices." -Peter Terzian America On-Line LP's Of The Year The great thing about album of the year lists is that no-one can ever remember anything that happened more than a month ago, so any band foolish enough to release an album in January or, say, November will be forgotten by posterity (if you define "posterity", that is, as a big list in a music paper, which I don't. I'm not drunk. I just haven't quite got dressed yet. This week). Just as Greatest Albums Of All Time lists are always compiled by gimpaloids for whom history began with Radiohead (double history, perhaps, followed by a particularly long math lesson and a detention supervised by a kind of mind control robot with flashing red eyes and hacksaws instead of fingers), er, so albums of the year are always a bit too recent. Outside albums, we should all have Eminem's Stan, the Blue Jam CD and David Cavanagh's My Magpie Eyes Are Hungry For The Prize: The Creation Records Story (whose title alone takes up the first 500 pages). In the mean time, if you don't have these records- well, I do... AC/DC Stiff Upper Lip... Beautiful South Painting It Red... Cath Carroll: Cath Carroll Cath Carroll hung out with Morrissey as a lass, then went sane and spent the 1980s in indie group Miaow, signed to Factory, made her first album in London and Brazil, and then moved to Chicago. But then, don't we all? This is her third album and it's excellent, from the wistful London, Queen Of My Heart to the rolling You Know It's You. After an absence caused by record company shenanigans and the like, it seems likely that she might make an album more than once every demi-decade...Coldplay: Parachutes...Eels: Daisies Of The Galaxy...Eminem: The Marshall Mathers LP...Goldfrapp: Felt Mountain...Madonna: Music... [more] -David Quantick Village Voice Pazz and Jop 2000 Peter Terzian's 2000 Ballot Albums (# / artist / title / label) 1 Aimee Mann Bachelor No. 2 SuperEgo 2 The Go-Betweens The Friends of Rachel Worth Jetset 3 Yo La Tengo And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out Matador 4 U2 All That You Can't Leave Behind Interscope 5 Travis The Man Who Columbia 6 Kirsty MacColl Tropical Brainstorm Import 7 Saint Etienne Sound of Water Sub Pop 8 Josh Rouse Home Rykodisc 9 Rickie Lee Jones It's Like This Artemis 10 Cath Carroll Cath Carroll Heart and Soul

Additional Info Many EPs and Singles are also available as well as "Tom Waits",Cath's critical discography

Location Chicago, Il - USA

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